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| The 2006 Atlanta JAZZ Party! |
Comments by Phil Carroll . . .
Most historians agree that the first jazzman was a Negro, Charles "Buddy" Bolden, who improvised the blues at the Funky Butt Hall in uptown New Orleans in the summer of 1894. Some diehard whites like to believe that the honor should go to Emile "Stalebread" Lacoume who led the Razzy Dazzy Spasm Band in the streets of Storyville in 1897, playing homemade instruments for coins. Either way, jazz started in New Orleans and most of the earliest jazz bands did not use a piano, because piano players or "professors" such as Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton could make $5 to $20 per night (sometimes as much as $100) playing in the sporting houses, while the other musicians played for $1.25 to $2.50 per night in honky tonks and dance halls.
Without radio, television or phonograph, jazz stayed pretty much in New Orleans for 15 years. The downtown (French Quarter) musicians were considered legitimate since they were trained and were good readers, while the uptown musicians and players tended to be self-taught, not readers, and played in a loud ragged style. The leading downtown dance band among the Creoles of Color was led by Jack "Papa" Laine, who had one of the best brass bands and no less than six different dance bands, all named "Reliance" that worked simultaneously in New Orleans. These downtown orchestras played the best of the social affairs -- garden parties, dances and picnics -- that were a regular form of entertainment around the turn of the century.
The earliest bands to take jazz music from New Orleans to the rest of the country were the Original Creole Orchestra (a Negro band), in 1911. It toured the country in a vaudeville circuit. Then in 1915, Tom Brown's Band from Dixieland (a white band) went to a job a Lamb's Cafe in Chicago. Another white band, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, went to Chicago in 1916 then to Reisenweber's in New York City. They became a huge hit and started the Jazz Age with the first jazz record for Victor in 1917. The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in the early 1920s were a very popular white band at the Friar's Inn in Chicago. All three white bands -- Brown's, ODJB and NORK -- were staffed to a large extent by musicians who got their start with Jack Laine's Reliance bands. In 1917, the Secretary of the Navy requested that New Orleans close down Storyville to keep the sailors out of trouble. This put many musicians out of work and many left New Orleans; Sidney Bechet to Chicago in 1917, Kid Ory to California in 1919, Joe "King" Oliver to Chicago in 1919 and Jelly Roll Morton had traveled the Gulf Coast and points west for a number of years and played in Chicago from 1923-28. The Dodds brothers, John and Baby, both went to Chicago.
As a consequence, The South Side of Chicago in the '20s became The Place To Be for jazzmen and jazz fans alike. From 1920-24 Joe "King" Oliver played at Pekin Cafe, Dreamland and Lincoln Gardens (formerly Royal Gardens Cafe). In '22 he led King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band with Johnny Dodds, clarinet; Baby Dodds, drums; Lil Hardin, piano and in the summer of '22, Joe sent for Louis Armstrong to come from New Orleans and play second cornet in the band. Louis married Lil Hardin in '24 and then with his wife's encouragement, left King Oliver and went out on his own. Later he had his own band at the Sunset Cafe. Meanwhile, Jimmie Noone, the great New Orleans clarinetist had a fine group at the Nest, later the Apex Club, with Doc Poston and Earl Hines. Johnny Dodd joined New Orleans' most powerful cornet player Freddie Keppard and his band at Kelly's Stable. And, as mentioned earlier, the white band, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, with Paul Mares, cornet; George Brunies, trombone; Leon Rappolo, clarinet; all from New Orleans, held forth at the Friar's Inn. Bix Beiderbecke, from Davenport, Iowa, who was attending Lake Forest Academy on the north side of Chicago, would slip out of school and spend the evening jamming with the NORK band. He soon joined the Wolverines.
Chicago was a great place for young kids who were jazz crazy! The nucleus was a group called The Austin High Gang from the Westside. The gang was Jimmy McPartland, cornet; Bud Freeman, sax; Frank Teschmacher, clarinet; Tim Lannigan, pianno; and Dick McPartland, guitar. But, there were other young boys... Benny Goodman, Floyd O'Brien, trombone; Dave Tough, drums; Muggsy Spanier, Jess Stacy, Gene Krupa, George Wettling, Joe Sullivan and a young banjo player from Indiana, by the name of Eddie Condon. All of these budding jazzmen were awed and influenced by what they heard in person and on records from King Oliver, NORK, The Wolverines, Jimmie Noone, etc. They learned their lessons well and most went on to a life of jazz.
more to follow...